The invention relates to a feeding bottle with a bottle, a teat, a ring nut for fastening the teat to the edge of the opening of the bottle and a covering cap, which is to be placed on the ring nut.
Feeding bottles are used to provide milk and other liquid food especially to children. Known feeding bottles have a bottle and a teat, which can be fixed by means of a ring nut to an external thread of the bottle, which runs around the opening of the bottle. A covering cap can be placed on the ring nut. A washer or an edge of the teat can be clamped between the ring nut and the opening edge of the bottle, forming a seal. Such means prevent food running out unintentionally. Such a feeding bottle is described in the DE 33 37 248 A1.
The CH 261 501 A, U.S. Pat. No. 5,419,445 A and U.S. Pat. No. 2,579,194 A disclose feeding bottles with teats and covering caps which, when placed in position, are seated with the inside of their bottom on the drinking hole in the center of the teat nipple. The bottom of the cap is curved concavely at the inside and the teat nipple with the central drinking hole lies against this concave curvature forming a seal.
The WO 99/03442 A1 discloses a covering cap, which is fitted to the outer shape of the teat, in order to avoid any space between the covering cap and the teat. At the top, the inside of the covering cap seals off a drinking hole at the crest of the teat, in order to prevent milk emerging. For withdrawing nourishment, a portion of the covering cap can be detached from its body by tearing open a tear-off strip. This covering is suitable only for a single use. The covering cap, once taken off, cannot be put back in place again to form a seal.
The EP 0 527 094 A1 discloses a feeding bottle with a cap, which can be snapped into a groove on the outside of a ring nut. The cap contains a flexible membrane, which can be connected permanently with a sleeve disposed at the bottom of the cap. The membrane is elastic and seals off the drinking hole of the teat, when the cap is placed on the ring nut. The cap is costly and difficult to clean. For orthodontically shaped teats, for which the drinking hole is disposed in a side surface of the head part of the teat nipple and aligned at an acute angle to the axis of the teat, the membrane, after it is arched to some extent, fits against the drinking hole and seals it off. The contacting pressure of the membrane against the opening edge of the teat is consequently relatively slight, so that there may be leaks.
The DE 92 14 438U1 and DE 93 18 699 U1 disclose a baby bottle with a covering cap, the height of which is less than the height of the teat. Consequently, the covering cap presses with the bottom of a chamber against the drinking holes of the teat, sealing them off. In so doing, the orthodontically shaped teat is deformed appreciably, so that, at the end of the deformation, a drinking hole, disposed in a side of the teat, inclined to the central axis, lies with its edge against the bottom of the cap, forming a seal. The sealing forces, which arise here, are relatively slight, so that there may be leaks.
The DE 200 09 873 U1 discloses a baby bottle with a flexible teat, which has a compression section around the drinking hole. A flexible cap has an engagement section, which is formed at its upper inside and the shape of which corresponds to that of the compression section. The engagement section can be pressed onto the compression section so that the latter can be sunk by a specified amount, when the cap is placed on the holding ring, as a result of which the liquid, contained in the container, is prevented effectively from running out through the drinking hole of the teat. This construction is not suitable for an orthodontically shaped teat with a drinking hole in a side surface of the teat nipple inclined to the central axis.
The WO 98/15463 A1 discloses a feeding bottle with a teat and a covering cap. At the bottom, the covering cap has a protrusion, which projects downward and seals the drinking hole at the crest of the teat nipple. This construction is unsuitable for an orthodontic teat with a drinking hole in an inclined side surface of the teat nipple.